Cattle-guard.



' A. VV. SMlH.

cAmE GUARD. APPLICATION FILED MAR. 21. L91? I Patented Feb. 5, 1918.

4;; 56H v/( i MI l l l O ggf @opten ot thlle patent may te obtained for UNITN CATTLE-GUARD.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented. heb.. 5, it..

Application filed March 21, 1917. Serial No. 156,367.

To all 'whom t may concern.'

Be it known that I, ALEXANDER W. SMITH, a citizen of the Dominionof Canada, residing at Agassiz, in the Province of British Columbia, Canada, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Cattle- Guards, of which the following is a specifcation.

This invention relates to a cattle guard for a railway track and is of that class wherein an unstable footing is provided to deter cattle from passing along the track.

Devices of this character should be such that the legs or feet of the animals are not liable to injury, but if an animal attempts to pass he will be unable to find secure footing and will abandon the attempt.

rI`his object is attained by providing a series of short independently rotatable rollers of relatively large diameter mounted to turn freely on their supporting shafts or axles which are disposed between and on each side of the rails of the track and parallel thereto.

The invention is particularly described in the following specification, reference being made to the drawings by which it is accompanied, in which:

Figure 1 is a cross section on the line l--l in Fig. 2, and

Fig. 2 is a plan of the device as applied to a railway track.

In these drawings 2 represents the rails of the track which throughout the section of the cattle guard are preferably supported on longitudinal timbers 3. Lengthwise disposed between these track rails 2 and for a suiicient width outside the same, a series of short lengths of relatively large diameter rollers 4 are mounted on tubular shafts 5 so as to be freely rotatable thereon. These rollers may be of any suitable material, such as wood or earthenware, but are preferably of thin sheet metal with end bearings of wood supportin the ends of the rollers on the tubular sha t 5.

The tubular shafts 5 are supported at each end and intermediate thereof in cross members 6 which may be metal or Wood extending across, between and secured to the longitudinal timbers 3 of the track and on the outer side of the track between the said longitudinals and timbers 7 parallel therewith. The shafts 5 may be recessed into the upper side of these bearers 6 and a cover plate 8 may be bolted or otherwise secured to retain them in position.

The rollers being of large diameter relative to the shafts on which they are mounted and being in short lengths independent of one another, will turn readily under the pressure of an animals foot and not only so but the turning movement is considerable and being sidewise inward or outward is more liableto disturb the stability of a fourfooted animal, so that they will not venture to trust themselves on it.

I do not desire to be confined to the particular construction of roller here described or to the particular construction of the frames in which the supporting shafts are mounted, although the same is, I believe, both effective and simple and inexpensive.

Having now particularly described my invention, I hereby declare that what I claim as new and desire to be protected in by Letters Patent, is:

A. cattle guard, comprising the combina tion with longitudinal timbers on which the track rails are carried throughout the length of the guard, of longitudinal timbers parallel thereto outside the track width, shaft bearers extending between and secured to the longitudinals, tubular shafts secured to the upper side of the bearers, and a series of short rollers of relatively large diameter mounted on said shafts to be independently rotatable thereon.

In testimony whereof I aHix my signature.

ALEXANDER entri-i.

ve cents each, by addressing the e: rw sstoner et Raten ashingtoml. Y 

